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Forgotten
Sikhs
Jagmohan Singh
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Jagmohan Singh travels to Bani Mantap, Mysore tracking the
Sikligar Sikhs. Sad pictures and a sadder life is what he
reports. |
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 From the outskirts of
Sholapur
in Maharashtra to the periphery of the beautiful Mysore city in the
state of Karnataka, I continued my search for the Sikligar Sikh
habitat. Accompanied by my wife, we made a tour of the area, but
were embarrassed of our cleanliness in the face of the terrible
conditions in which the 20-odd families were surviving there.
Describing poverty is painful.
I was aghast at their determination and hard work. Four year old
Rahul Singh had dropped out of school after severe beating by a
teacher for reasons he could not understand. He was now beating iron
to augment the family income. His father Ajit Singh says, "He never
misses an opportunity to hold the hammer. As soon as I take a
respite, he is there". I asked the child, "This is too heavy for
you, don't you get tired?" He said, "No". Then I asked him, "what do
you want to become in life? "Dharmendra", pat came the reply. His
elder sister, Roshni Kaur, another school dropout, spends the whole
day watching television, as she too is too shy to go to school. The mother says,
she will endeavour to send her both the children to school next
year.
 Three year old kid Lucky Singh is not so lucky. He cannot open
his eyes in daylight. The sun pinches him and he keeps weeping. Come
dusk and he sees like a normal person. He suffers from a peculiar
eye ailment. While we were touring the settlement, our guide Ajit
Singh wanted us to meet the Naana.
He is an 85 year old man -Durga
Singh and the 20 families that live here are his clan. He is
bedridden after having met an accident. He is blind too. His wife,
Raj Kaur, takes care of him and has been doing so for the last many
years.
Most men are off to work when we visit. Some have gone to
other cities and states, as far as Coimbatore, where they have
relatives to stay -to sell their wares as there is less demand for
the iron agricultural tools that they make in
Mysore.
They have been residing in this area, officially called Hutments,
(as per the Electoral Rolls records) in the Varnimathram area of the
city, after they came from Davengere –another Karnataka town, some
fifteen years ago. They have work for 10-12 days in a month.
 The
younger children, about eighteen of them, go to school, courtesy the
education sponsorship programme of the Karnataka Sikh Welfare
Society. The adolescents want to supplement the family income and
therefore remain unlettered.
The only escape from the stark
realities of life for the hundred-odd residents of this ghetto,
living amidst other communities similarly placed, is television with
cable connections purchased through the nose under daily installment
payment schemes.
Huddled in the foreground of Ajit Singh's hut, I
gathered the womenfolk and asked them, "Would they like to study?
Would they take the lead and make a difference to their lives
through education?" With a spark in their eyes, "Yes, provided
the teacher comes here" they all said.
Someone desperately needs a temporary tin sheet over their thatched
roof; the women need the privacy of a washroom, the kid with the eye
ailment needs medication and the old man desperately needs care,
hospitalization and an operation. All of them need education,
empowerment, encouragement, dignity, a sense of affinity from the
Sikhs at large and a decent dwelling.
Jagmohan
Singh is a commentator based in Ludhiana. He may be contacted at
jsbigideas@gmail.com.
24
December
2008
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